Some Latino legislators are questioning Obama’s commitment to immigration reform.
Close

“The president looks forward to continuing to work with Latino elected and appointed officials in the coming weeks and months on these issues as he and his administration have done over the past two years,” Miranda added.

After POLITICO raised questions about Obama’s attendance at NALEO, the White House informed the National Council of La Raza, another Hispanic organization, that Obama would attend its annual conference in July, according to La Raza spokesman Julian Teixeira.

Text Size

When Obama addressed NALEO in 2008, the group’s executive director, Arturo Vargas, asked whether he would return in 2009, if elected.

Obama replied, “As president, I am looking forward to being back and addressing you.”

Three years later, NALEO is still waiting. Vargas said the invitation for this week’s conference was delivered to the White House a year ago.

“It’s more than a disappointment,” Vargas told POLITICO. “I don’t get it. I don’t think he’s given our membership the attention they deserve.”

Vargas said the White House told him Obama’s schedule is too tight to allow his attendance. The White House pressed NALEO to accept a video address by the president instead, according to the organization. NALEO declined.

“We’ve had numerous folks call and write, asking [that] he honor his commitment,” said NALEO President Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat from Texas. “They said no.”

Salazar “will discuss the Obama administration’s priorities and the steps the administration has taken and will continue to take on behalf of Latinos and all Americans to put us back on the path to long-term prosperity and growth,” Interior Department spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said.

She called the conference “a high priority for the White House as well as Secretary Salazar.”

But Juan C. Zapata, a Florida Republican and chairman of the NALEO Educational Fund, the organization’s nonprofit community outreach arm, called Obama “calculating” and “disingenuous.”

“He sent a very clear message to the Hispanic community that, ‘I want your support on the campaign, but I am not willing to do anything to earn it,’” Zapata said.

“He sent a very clear message to the Hispanic community that, ‘I want your support on the campaign, but I am not willing to do anything to earn it,’” Zapata said.

Smash and grab!!! Policial whoring at it's worst!

Obama's Puerto Rico visit spurs anger, discontent

Legislators in the territory's pro-statehood ruling party express resentment after president's short trip

By DANICA COTO, Associated Press SALON

AP/Carolyn Kaster

President Barack Obama speaks in an airport hanger at Muniz Air National Guard Base, last Tuesday.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- President Barack Obama may have been in Puerto Rico for only four hours, but his brief fundraising visit has unleashed a growing political furor in this U.S. Caribbean territory.

Legislators of Puerto Rico's pro-statehood ruling party say they are resentful that he swooped in to raise about $1 million and did not offer any help or solutions as the island battles a soaring crime rate and higher unemployment compared with any U.S. state.

One legislator threatened to derail one objective of the president's June 14 visit: to woo Hispanic voters on the mainland in his quest for re-election.

Local Sen. Melinda Romero, a delegate of the island's chapter of the Democratic Party, said she has demanded an apology from Obama and will travel to the U.S. next week to meet with Puerto Rican leaders in key states including Florida and New York.

"The President did not bring anything to the table," she said in a statement issued late Friday. "His visit only served to take away dollars, just like they take away our young people to war."

She also demanded that he return the money raised.

White House spokesman Luis Miranda referred to Obama's recent interview with Univision, a Spanish-language broadcast and cable network, in which Obama states that an economic summit held after his visit aimed to find ways to reduce unemployment and increase manufacturing and tourism.

"We're going to be working with the government here in Puerto Rico, businesses, activists to find a comprehensive plan that can start moving the island forward," Obama said.

Residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, but they cannot vote in presidential general elections. However, the 4.6 million Puerto Ricans who live on the mainland can vote.

Adding to the resentment of the ruling New Progressive Party, led by Republican Gov. Luis Fortuno, is the unscheduled lunch that Obama had with opposition gubernatorial candidate Alejandro Garcia, and how the White House prominently posted a picture of the meeting on its website.

Hector Ferrer, vice president of the Popular Democratic Party, which favors the current commonwealth status, blasted the Obama critics.

"How do they expect that the President in a one-day visit provide them with solutions and solve the disaster that they have created in two years?" he said. Ferrer's party is not associated with the U.S. Democratic Party.

The island of 4 million people faces a 16 percent unemployment rate and last year recorded its second-worst year for homicides, with more than 955 killings reported.

The anger over Obama's visit comes as Puerto Rico seeks to define its status conclusively, with Obama calling for a vote on the issue by next year.

Puerto Ricans voted to maintain commonwealth status and rejected statehood in nonbinding referendums in 1967, 1993 and 1998. A small percentage favored independence.

The White House touted Obama's official visit, the first since that of President John F. Kennedy, as a follow-up to a recent federal report about the island's status that included recommendations about how to boost the economy.

Local political analyst Eudaldo Baez-Galib said he doubted the anger over Obama's trip would result in any losses of votes on the mainland.

"The president took away nearly $1 million ... and he made it known to Puerto Ricans in the U.S. that he was here just like Kennedy," Baez-Galib said. "He achieved his two objectives."

One week, it's articles that unions are miffed at 0bama because he's done nothing for them, abandoning card check in particular.

Next week, it the Netroots people, ticked off that 0bama hasn't been the change they all believed in.

Week after that, it's the gays up in arms that 0bama hasn't been forceful on gay marriage.

Oh, and then there's news that the professional black grievance mongers have not been happy how 0bama has ignored issues like jobs and other minority rights.

Now it's articles about how the hispanic lobby is unhappy that El Hombe hasn't been moving at all on amnesty, DREAM Act, etc.

Either this is the biggest head fake in American political history, a coordinated media effort of unheard of proportions to try to trick middle America in swing states that 0bama isn't really beholden to democrat special interests.

Or this guy is a Potemkin candidate, a guy who puts up a mighty facade but is really nothing, an empty suit. A guy with voter support a mile wide and a few microns deep who is terrified that that the voters who show up at the polls next November will be looking to kick his a** out the door.

When I was growing up on Indian Island in Orono Maine, as I clearly recall; just a month or two before elections, trucks filled with food, toys, candy and personal hygene products would come rolling in. What a coincidence.

The Bin Laden-Geronomo incident clearly indicates that nothing has changed. May Native Americans I blog with intend to vote for Republicans, because as someone put it "At least with them, we know where we stand". On a related issue, what mystifies me is the cutback of Government surplus food to rural Foodpantries: Low income seniors rely on this extra help. Seniors are still the largest voting block in the United States, yet the Obama Administration has done their darndest to enrage them. Maybe the rumor is true: Obama does not want a second term? Sure looks that way, doesn't it?

Obama knows that the majority of the people will go BANANAS if he tries any kind of "amnesty" or 'immigration reform", as some like to call it. He needs the vote of the majority over the Latino's vote.

We're all learning to listen to what Obama has to say....but pay particular attention to what he actually DOES or DOES NOT Do. Soon, we only half listen. Obama gives pretty speeches, poses for continuing photo ops, but delivers little. As to his "spokespersons" (spinners) why listen at all to their talking points pablum?

Don't let the Dems do to Hispanics what they've done to blacks. unless you want the godless anti-family party in power. Republicans do need your vote and need to work for it. hold out and don't give away your vote to the party that takes you for granted.

Oh! So the Hispanic organization is offended because Obama did not show up. Give me a break and grow up, Hispanic organization. Go back to do what you always do and stop complaining. By the way, tell those illegal aliens to go back to their countries.

Hispanic organization are criticizing President Barack Obama for skipping their annual conference for the third consecutive year after he promised as a candidate in 2008 that he would return as president

LOL...............welcome to the club, Hispanic Americans........

There were a ton of promises made in 2007-2008 by candidate Obama...........

In 2012 we will elect a NEW president and transfer this one to Oprah's 4pm time slot in Chicago..........

How does that sound?

Romney/Rubio..........."time for talk is over...............time for performance..........."

Why are minorities so easily fooled into thinking the Democrats really care for them? All they care about is keeping them in a poverty mindset so as to make them feel they have no choice but to keep electing big brother government to take care of them. I mean come on. The choice is clear. Go with the party of self determination and who needs you to be prosperous to keep them in power.

Why are minorities so easily fooled into thinking the Democrats really care for them? All they care about is keeping them in a poverty mindset so as to make them feel they have no choice but to keep electing big brother government to take care of them. I mean come on. The choice is clear. Go with the party of self determination and who needs you to be prosperous to keep them in power.

No Worries. TeamObama is still showering Hispanics..and their Signature Group..LaRaza...with your taxdollars. Judical Watch....giving you the account of just how much money TeamObama is giving LaRaZA. A Judicial Watch investigation reveals that federal funding for a Mexican La Raza group that for years has raked in millions of taxpayer dollars has skyrocketed since one of its top officials got a job in the Obama White House.

The influential and politically-connected National Council of La Raza (NCLR) has long benefitted from Uncle Sam’s largess but the group has made a killing since Obama hired its senior vice president (Cecilia Muñoz) in 2009 to be his director of intergovernmental affairs.

Ignored by the mainstream media, Judicial Watch covered the appointment because the president issued a special “ethics waiver” to bring Muñoz aboard since it violated his own lobbyist ban. At the pro illegal immigration NCLR, Muñoz supervised all legislative and advocacy activities on the state and local levels and she was heavily involved in the congressional immigration battles that took place in the George W. Bush Administration.

She also brought in a steady flow of government cash that’s allowed the Washington D.C.-based group to expand nationwide and promote its leftist, open-borders agenda via a network of community organizations dedicated to serving Latinos. Among them are a variety of local groups that provide social services, housing counseling and farm worker assistance as well as publicly-funded charter schools that promote radical Chicano curriculums. Judicial Watch published a special report on this a few years ago.

This week a JW probe has uncovered details of the alarming increase in federal funding that these NCLR groups have received since Muñoz joined the Obama Administration. In fact, the government cash more than doubled the year Muñoz joined the White House, from $4.1 million to $11 million.

Not surprisingly, a big chunk of the money (60%) came from the Department of Labor, which is headed by a former California congresswoman (Hilda Solis) with close ties to the La Raza movement. Since Obama named her Labor Secretary, Solis has launched a nationwide campaign to protect illegal immigrant workers in the U.S. Just this week Solis penned declarations with Guatemala and Nicaragua to preserve the rights of their migrants.

The NCLR also received additional taxpayer dollars from other federal agencies in 2010, the JW probe found. The Department of Housing and Urban Development doled out $2.5 million for housing counseling, the Department of Education contributed nearly $800,000 and the Centers for Disease Control a quarter of a million.

Additionally, NCLR affiliates nationwide raked in tens of millions of government grant and recovery dollars last year thanks to the Muñoz factor. An offshoot called Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) saw its federal funding nearly double to $18.3 million following Muñoz’ appointment.

A social service and legal assistance organization (Ayuda Inc.) that didn’t receive any federal funding between 2005 and 2008 got $600,000 in 2009 and $548,000 in 2010 from the Department of Justice. The group provides immigration law services and guarantees confidentiality to assure illegal aliens that they won’t be reported to authorities.

Why should the hispanic votrs feel neglected more than any of the other groups obama has lied and pandered to? Get in line or go home is what his administration will tell you right after you donate to his re-election.

What is the problem here, hispanics are not the only group feeling this, but be patient I assure you that when your vote is needed you will get the president's attention with a very classy teleprompter speach.

Who knows, perhaps he will raise Bush statements, blaming everything on him. You know every policy that the democrats complained about with Bush has been extended under Obama and deportation of illega immigrants has grown under Obama.